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Social Bookmarking &Del.icio.us:

A Personal and ProfessionalProductivity Tool

Patricia F. Anderson<pfa@umich.edu>

Health Sciences LibrariesUniversity of Michigan

February 22, 2007

© 2007 Regents of theUniversity of Michigan.All rights reserved.

Del.icio.us

Useful for …

• Folk who use multiple computers in variouslocations

• Discovery of items similar to your selections• Collecting search strategies & information for

bibliographies• Course-integrated instruction• Sharing resources with peers, managers,

students & others• Web site development

Content in Del.icio.us

• Database built by general public,contains what others liked

• Focused: better for popular topics anditems

• Currently tends to focus on items ofinterest to technophiles and youngadults, but growing and diversifying

• What you add changes the profile

Like Del.icio.us … but forScientists

• Connotea• CiteULike

Connotea

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Connotea CiteULike

Searching in Del.icio.us

• Three options

Searching in Del.icio.us

• Example:

Searching in Del.icio.us

• Let’s try it.

•http://del.icio.us/

Browsing Tags in Del.icio.us

• Tags are freeform and self-selected• Check a variety of spellings, phrasings, capitalization, and

punctuation for the same concept• Avian flu = avian.flu = avian_flu = avian-flu = avianflu =

Avian.flu = Avian.Flu = “avian flu” = …• Avian influenza• Bird flu = birdflu• Bird influenza• Pandemic influenza• Pandemic flu• H5N1 / h5n1• MORE: tamiflu, pandemic, flu, epidemic, influenza

• Watch for popular terms

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Browsing Tags in Del.icio.us Browsing Tags in Del.icio.us

Browsing Tags in Del.icio.us Browsing Tags in Del.icio.us

• DEMO

•http://del.icio.us/tag/

Getting Started

• Create your account• Upload your bookmarks• Export bookmarks (“hotsync”)• Save links• Tag• Annotate• Settings

Create Your Account

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Create Your Account

• Each account must be associated with aunique e-mail address (I think).

• If creating an account to be shared across anoffice, consider creating an e-mail list to serveas the contact e-mail address.

Create Your Account

• Consider the purpose of the account whennaming it; segregate home / personal andoffice collections.

• If you will be collecting information that isprivate consider choosing a username thatwill not be associated with you personally.

Create Your Account

• Let’s do it!

• Choose a fictional “name”?• If you have a non-UM e-mail address,

consider using that as the contact.• Use a different password than your Kerberos

password.• You will need to open your e-mail in another

window to activate the account.

Upload Bookmarks

• Easy: Select file, accept default options• Public or Private - your choice

Export Bookmarks

• Like hotsyncing your browser

How to Save a Link

• With the post button• With the browser buttons• Required elements: title / URL• Optional standard elements: tags /

annotations• Extra optional element: Privacy

checkbox

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How to Save a Link

• With the post button (eg. PDFs)

How to Save a Link

• With the post button (eg. PDFs)

How to Save a Link

• With the browser buttons• TIP: Use the tab to fill in a tag with the

highlighted tag, or click on the choice tosave typing.

How to Save a Link

• Extra optional element: Privacycheckbox

How to Tag

• Tagging rules• Separate tags with a space• Join words with punctuation (lower-case

preferred) (some simply delete spacesbetween words)

• Use capitalization appropriately toimproved readability or to distinguishbetween tags and bundles

How to Annotate

• Annotations: Personal vs. Communal• Citations• Quotations• Date Viewed• Size limits on what can be included

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Tag & Annotate Examples Tag & Annotate Examples

Tag & Annotate Examples Editing Saved Links

Personalized Settings

• Privacy options• Tag Bundles• Networking

Personalized Settings: Privacy

• Private links (checkbox)• Private network (block someone who

sends you inappropriate links)

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Personalized Settings: TagBundles

• SAVE!

Who Saved What?

Personalized Settings:Networks Using Networks for Discovery

Things To Do With Del.icio.us

• Working with students• Del.icio.us in class environments

(Google jockeys)• Working with peers and administrators• Have an assistant gather information for

you

Del.icio.us vs. Ctools for URLCollections

• Del.icio.us• Available to public (+/-)• Annotations and tags provide richer information

than the Ctools Dropbox• Easier to share/add/delete links than Ctools• Students develop skills and collections for life after

Michigan• Feeds the public good

• Ctools• Can secure access to a select group (+/-)• Integrates with other course materials• UM Institutional and community standard

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Collect Links for BuildingWebsites

Collect Information to Answera Question

• Remember privacy issues: Does yourcollection reveal identity?

Collect Information andStrategies for Your Manager

Have an Assistant CollectLinks for You

Create Information andTeaching Guides

• Library guides …

Linking to Complex Concepts

• Use the plus sign (+) to combineconcepts

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Example Library Guide

• Notice the annotations?

Saving Search Strategies

• Saving search strategies for a class(Google Jockey concept) …

Tagging Tips

• Too few terms can make retrievaldifficult

• Too many terms can also make retrievaldifficult

Tagging Tips

• Include both broad and narrow terms

• Design terms with repeated concepts togo from broad to narrow, general tospecific.

Tagging Tips

• Use punctuation for spaces (lower case)• Think of unique concepts as two term

combinations, rather than a new term.• Standardization helps, but requires

maintenance.

Tagging Tips

• Tagging shortcuts: examples• Items for a particular audience:

• 4doctors, 4kids, 4patients, etc

• Items from frequently read journals orauthors:• in:jada, in:nyt, in:chronicle, in:agd

• Items for people in your delicious network:• for:dentlib, for:tmjchat

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Saving Items Tagged for You Saving Items Tagged for You

Tag Clouds Tag Bundles

Questions?

• Contact: Patricia Anderson at pfa@umich.edu